The Arm of St Oswald

The arm of St Oswald, king of Northumbria, was one of the most prized relics of Peterborough, and King Stephen came to see it, giving his ring and remitting a debt of forty marks. The story went that Oswald, sitting at meat, sent food from his own table to beggars at the gate and, when it ran short, had a silver dish cut in pieces and shared among them. Bishop Aidan, seeing it, took him by the right hand and prayed that the hand might never grow old. When Oswald was killed in battle against Penda of Mercia, those who remembered the blessing kept his arm, which came at last to Peterborough.